Man throwing bricks at police officer shot, killed
Dec 26, 2015, 12:29 PM | Updated: 3:26 pm
Phoenix Police said a man who was throwing bricks and rocks at police on Saturday was shot by an officer in front of a police precinct and has died at the hospital.
The suspect, a 41-year-old white male, threw “several” bricks that damaged a police vehicle and also a window at a police substation near 39th Avenue and Cactus Road, according to Sgt. Jonathan Howard. One officer sustained a minor injury on his hand before firing a single shot at the suspect.
It is unclear what objects were thrown at the officer who fired the shot.
“Our detectives will have to walk him back through and do a walk-through to figure out exactly where everyone was in relation to him and what options he had available to him at that time,” Howard said.
The incident began when an officer leaving the station stopped at the light of the intersection when he encountered the subject around 11:45 a.m.
“He was stopped at the red light at 39th Avenue and Cactus when he heard a man screaming at him and yelling, and looked over to the man throwing a rock or a brick at him in the patrol car,” Howard said.
The vehicle sustained damage, but the officer drove off to park and talk to the suspect. The suspect then began grabbing large bricks off a fence and broke the glass of the police precinct’s front door.
Howard said that investigators will determine which bricks and rocks were used by the suspect. He added that the man had access to both bricks from a fence and river rocks that were from landscaping near the police station.